Ex-Marvel Boss Producing Angry Birds

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Former studio chairman joins Rovio, will exec produce game-to-film.

By Jim Vejvoda

David Maisel, the former chairman of Marvel Studios who led the studio into self-producing and self-financing its films as well as its sale to Disney, has joined Rovio as a Special Advisor -- a role which will also see him serve as an executive producer on the planned feature film version of its hit video game Angry Birds.

Maisel's hiring, announced via a Rovio press release, signals the game company's intent on broadening the scope of their properties into other avenues of entertainment, namely films. During his tenure with Marvel, Maisel exec produced Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

"I'm very honored and excited to join Rovio, and my goal is to help unleash its great potential," Maisel said in a statement. "Rovio has already had amazing success and established a great brand with Angry Birds. The business model, intellectual properties, and the franchise potential of Angry Birds give Rovio the most exciting prospects I have seen in the entertainment business since Marvel in 2003."

Variety chatted with Maisel about his appointment and the prospect of an Angry Birds film, with the exec telling them, "There has been so much chatter about an 'Angry Birds' movie, but it's now real. ... The process is starting now."

The trade says Maisel has already met with interested writers and directors on the project. Forbes goes further, saying writers are already working on a script that "will that would develop the game's backstory." Forbes adds that Rovio has been chatting with interested studios.

"We are working on the mythology with the movie script and we don't want to shape the mythology too far until we have that one nail in place," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed told Forbes. "We've seen too many movies based on games that have not performed well."

"People are interacting with these characters six inches from them each time they play and that creates an emotional connection," Maisel told Variety. "This is not an American thing. It's not even a Finnish thing. It's a global thing that's something I've never seen before. This is the most exciting intellectual property to come from outside Hollywood in years and it will be exciting to expand it within Hollywood and take it to a whole new level."

Rovio is said to want to be another Pixar, and if Maisel's track record of helping Marvel turn its properties into successful movies while maintaining independence and creative control is any indication then that playbook should serve as a good template for Rovio to emulate.